Making Music for Gilded Destiny: Podcast with The Composer

Salutations! The main theme of today's Dev Diary is the game soundtrack! This Dev Diary is a conversation between Gilded Destiny's composer, John Skoog, and producer, Marc. We discuss the several design elements and goals of the making the game soundtrack—including the creative and composition process, the design challenges and considerations, creating authentic instrumentation, and using a mix of digital and live instruments. The primary goal is to create music authentic and true to the time period, while seamlessly fitting into gameplay without being distracting.

Be sure to listen to the backing tracks in this video—they are the pieces you will come to hear in the game! We are looking forward to sharing and discussing the finalized tracks in a future Dev Diary.

What did you think of the Podcast format? Would you like to have more of these conversations with members of our dev and design team?

The music in this video is also a sneak peek at our in-game music composed by John Skoog, @johnskoogmusic .

🌎 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2189430/Gilded_Destiny/

With the game still in the Pre-Alpha stage, most content will likely change significantly before release, and some placeholders are used, we hope this video gives you a better understanding of where the development is going!

Gilded Destiny a Grand Strategy Game is set at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and will allow players to live through the intricacies and challenges of the era. The game's central goal is to transform your chosen country from an agrarian society into an industrial one—where you'll lead your population from subsistence to wealth by controlling key economic, diplomatic, and military factors to achieve your goal.

Let us know if you have any questions or feedback in the comments below. And be sure to wishlist us on Steam to stay up to date!

Join our Discord community today!
https://discord.gg/3d77T9gxDF

If you are interested in what we do and want to join us but do not see a relevant job, send us your resume at jobs@aquilainteractive.io!

Listen to some of John Skoog's other work on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PGd3lmURa72oFasqK3N7N?si=nDl4DUTRQGKKLaDtGcHBJw
John Skoog Music: https://www.johnskoogmusic.com/

00:00 Counting In
00:49 Let's Meet John
03:05 Describing the Soundtrack
05:16 Being True to the Time Period
06:00 Creating Classical Music for a Video Game
08:57 Instrumentation and Creative Process
10:44 Using Digital Instruments
13:23 Playing Digital Instruments
15:08 Mixing Digital Instruments
15:50 Conducting Each Piece
17:45 Live Recordings
20:50 John's Favorite Tracks
22:29 Summary
23:19 One Last Question
25:14 How to Find John
25:50 Coda—Stay Tuned